People of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Central Asia, India and Iran always had a great wit gained from ancient philosophical thought of the Oriental world. Religion and philosophy had never been apart from one another. Philosophy was put into the core of the religion. That’s why, studying oriental philosophy from the point of view of western philosophy, without paying attention to these peculiarities of the Muslim World would cause false interpretations. Although, at first glance, oriental outlook may seem to be a sample of traditional mythology, it is rich in symbols, hints and deep meanings. Mythology is not a philosophy, of course. Nevertheless, their interpretation and cognition require a philosophical and logical thinking. The main idea of their philosophy is an attempt of people to understand and explain the unknown world. Whenever Islam was spread among people of highly civilized countries, the mystic-philosophical ideas of the latter would usually contradict with the main ideology of the former. The first external influence appeared from mystic Christians from Syria, the land under the power of Umayyad’s. Transfer of the capital to Baghdad from Damask during Abbasid’s reign and foundation of Ma’mun academy strengthened the influence. Moreover, Islam came across with religious-mystic beliefs of people of India, Iran and Central Asia. Mystic-deity knowledge had been developed long before Islam. Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Monism still possessed some influence on people even after the spread of Islam. In 9th and 10th centuries there were deity doctrines that synthesized various mystic theories on the territory of Khorasan, Nishapur, Balkh, Termidh and Samarkand. The views of such peripatetic philosophers as Al-Kindi, Abu Nasr Farabi and Ibn Sina used to be a matter of a great interest among people of Mavara an-Nahr and Khorasan who were kin on metaphysics.
The universal character of Sufism eliminated all ideological battles. From the XIII century the mystic-deity doctrine of Ibn al-‘Arabi (1165-1240) worked out in the “Wahdat al-wajud” (One Being) influenced on every social sphere. Al-falsafa and Kalam started losing its actuality. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 14th and 15th centuries Khwajagan brotherhood of Sufism had a great influence on Mavra al-Nahr, based their ideology onto orthodox Islamic doctrine on controlling the ideas of mystics about the afterworld.
The great poet and thinker Ali Sher Navai left enormous literary-philosophical and scientific heritage praising morality, patriotism and craving for enlightenment. The ideas and thoughts of Navai on society development and perfect human formation synchronize with the ones of the ancient philosophers. The outstanding characteristics of Ali Sher Navai works is promotion of love, tolerance, mutual respect and virtue as a core idea.
It is a well-known fact that implicit meanings are much more effective than an obvious message and refined literature which is the most powerful tool for advocating those issues. This gives a poet the status of a thinker. Ali Sher Navai is not an exception of the rule. Even though having a great and deep respect to Naqshbandiyya brotherhood of Sufism the poet had never joined them officially. As a distinctive thinker and great reformer, he had his own understanding of Sufi thought.
It is well known that mystical philosophy of the Sufis is based on three cardinal doctrines of “Divine Love” (‘Ishq-i Ilahi), “Knowledge of God” (ma’rifa) and “Unity with God” (Tawheed). The traces of the principles of early Sufis, who advocated the ideas of purification of the soul and safeguarding it from any affliction, and that its final product is the proper and harmonious relationship between Man and his Creator which can be seen in his works.
From this perspective, his criteria on Perfect Man and the early Sufis are close enough that God has enabled man to purify his soul and to establish his relationship with Him and His creation through treading upon the correct path, as best exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad P.B.U.H. Nava’i in his al-Futuhaat al-makkiyyah (Meccan Revelations) and Fushush al-hakim (Bezels of Wisdom) creates a symbiosis of the most important and best of them, making it to be simple enough for the common people to understand it and set for the search of God.
The ideas and views of Navai and Sufism are quite the same. Moreover, a very high morality lifestyle of the great poet and thinker can be considered as the pearl of Sufism, which in its turn makes some ground to call him a Sufi. Nevertheless, many of his works at first glance, are written in Sufi approach which sometimes requires a completely different angle of analysis. Considering a long time experience of the exploration of Navai’s works we would like to state that not so many of them have pure Sufi implications as we are used to think they do.
Sufism – the theory of love between God and Man became a key concept in his attempts to implant into people’s souls the ideas of purification of society, justice, conscience, love, respect, mercy, peace and tolerance and directing people from vice to virtue. Navai’s great mission is that he assigned for himself to put in life the idea of raising a perfect human. The main quality which made him different from Sufis was his global approach to the problem of educating the whole society. Sufism was the means of realizing his great goal.
He himself became a model and urged others to do the same. Sufism was a tool for his great purpose. Such Sufi ideas as love of life, taking the nature for a divine unit (holy mazhar (the image)) and valuing all its gifts, contributing to the flourishing of the environment and peaceful life of people, eradicating vice behavior and etc. are evaluated as a special interpretation in the works of Ali Sher Navai. Ali Sher Navai developed the concept of Al-Insan al-Kamil (Perfect Man) based on two ideological principles. One of them was the concept of “Divine Love” and the other one is “A Self-control of behavior and purification of the soul”. The works by Navai are aimed at discovering the great philosophy of Love. The primary responsibility of a person during his life is to discover the mystery of Love and become a Lover. It is the only condition for him to become the lord of the hidden treasury of God.
